The week of Thanksgiving is one of the busiest on the US retail calendar, thanks to an abundance of Black Friday promotions creating a potential nightmare for anyone working in retail. Ironically, it's one of the quieter weeks on the gaming new releases calendar this year, with such heavy hitters as Dragon Age: Origins, Assassin's Creed II, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 arriving earlier in the month.

For the traditional gaming crowd, the biggest retail release for the week of November 22-27 is the PSP version of Tekken 6, which launched on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 last month. The portable version crams in all 40 main characters and their move sets, along with arcade, story, and challenge modes.

Although they won't be available in stores, two new downloadable offerings may also grab gamers' interest. EA debuts its latest arcade-style football game with Madden NFL Arcade on the Xbox 360 and PS3, while those same two platforms will see 2K Games' The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the first add-on for the cooperative online shooter Borderlands. Details regarding a PC edition of Dr. Ned will be announced at a later date.

While the pickings are a bit slim for most gamers, there are a few potential hits for more casual crowds arriving in stores this week. Ubisoft's camera-equipped Wii fitness game Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy comes out this week, as does Konami's latest edition of Karaoke Revolution on the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Finally, those with a thirst for trivia about tween-focused supernatural melodrama fads can pick up Scene It? Twilight on the Wii.

For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and the Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

NOVEMBER 23: Bit.Trip Void--WII--Aksys Games Coldstone: Scoop It Up--WII--Zoo Games Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain--DS--Aspyr Hello Kitty Party--DS--Majesco Games Stoked: Big Air Edition--X360--Destineer

Hopefully Black Friday provides some good sales. I still need to get Batman Arkham Asylum, Assassin's Creed 2, Uncharted 2 and Demon's Souls. And Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2 are just around the corner... I"ll be broke for a while...

Did the world need a Coldstone simulator? After the immersive "scoop, then put on cone" motion controls, where did they think the draw of the game was?
You very rarely get to do the thing in real life that a video game simulates... but I'm pretty sure being a real Coldstone employee would prove this game is an awful idea.

I've been waiting for the PSP version of Tekken 6. Now I can practice combos while I chill out in the sun, or while I'm sitting on the can.
Namco makes great portable versions of their games (Broken Destiny and Dark Resurrection), so I'm pretty confident that the PSP T6 will be good as well.

For once I find nothing to say, it's dull. There may be games on sale but my Mom does Christmas shopping on Black Friday, and I'm not invited to help her buy my presents (Or anyone else's, and that's despite the fact I know my biggest present already). Not that I was planning to buy anything much this year anyways, my favorite titles came out October to early November, it's just a matter of finding the cash to get them.

I'm betting almost no one here knows of "King Arthur: The roleplaying wargame"... (Ignore the lackluster name... :P )
I'm hoping for a demo of that one- even if there isn't one though, I'm pretty sure my comp can run it, cause I'm actually quite interested in it.
Hopefully it'll fill that "at-least-decent AI" niche the Empire utterly failed to fill...